TwenteSat-1

Our TwenteSat-1 mission aims to design and build a microsatellite, or CubeSat, which is to function as a platform for mission payloads designed by students of the University of Twente or other partners. This platform will serve as the basis for further development of more TwenteSat missions and lay the foundations for innovative research in low earth orbit at the University of Twente.

Twente in Low-Earth Orbit

TwenteSat-1 is a modular microsatellite with a maximum weight of 4kg. It is being designed with flexibility in mind, providing a self contained platform into which mission payloads can be integrated following a set of standards developed by our satellite engineering team. The platform will provide power management, active attitude control and communications. This will provide great flexibility to other parties, who do not have the time, expertise, facilities or resources to design a complete satellite.

Base Station

The TwenteSat-1 mission also requires the design and manufacture of a base station. This base station has the primary purpose of receiving data and sending commands to our microsatellite, either to reposition itself or schedule experiments. Communication with the satellite will occur on amateur radio frequency bands, due to regulations. The available time for such communication is roughly 10 minutes per day. This is a very short time window, and as such the data transmission rates must be designed to handle this.

Earth Observation Training

Using our base station, we are able to acquire data not only from TwenteSat-1, but also from other satellites (e.g. weather, climate). Therefore, the base station can also serve as training facility for various study programs and faculties at the University of Twente, such as Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering and Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation.

Do you want to work on the TwenteSat-1 project? You can join our part-time satellite engineering team!Contact the board for more information.